Latest Oklahoma data loss puts 225,000 at risk

A laptop computer containing the personal information of about 225,000 Oklahomans was stolen from a city home last week.

Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency officials said Wednesday that the names, Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers, birth dates and addresses of clients of the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program were on an employee’s laptop that was stolen in an April 22 burglary.

Dennis Shockley, executive director of the agency, said the information of past and present clients and landlords of the voucher program is on the laptop.

No information from the agency’s other eight programs was compromised, he said.

Updating security

Oklahoma City police Capt. Steve McCool said the burglary was reported at a home near 7600 N Post Road in Oklahoma City on April 22. The front door was kicked in, and the laptop was stolen, along with jewelry, a camera, a gun and another laptop in the home.

McCool said investigators swept the home for fingerprints but recovered none.

Another burglary was reported at a nearby home that same morning, McCool said.

Shockley said the agency is upgrading its security and encrypting its computers but had not yet made those changes. The employee worked in the field assisting clients and was allowed to take the laptop home.

A letter sent to affected clients over the weekend advised individuals how to protect their credit and said the laptop had two layers of password protection — one to log in to the computer and another to access the secure files.

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